At Butte, Montana, a little high-grade manganese material has been obtained from the unoxidized pink manganese carbonate, which is a common mineral in some of the veins. It is associated with quartz and metallic sulphides and is similar in origin to the copper ores of the same district (pp. 201-202).
The lower-grade and the more ferruginous manganese ores are of a somewhat similar origin to the principal high-grade ores, in that they represent surface concentrations of the oxides from smaller percentages of the carbonates and silicates in the rocks below. Deposits of this nature have been derived from a wide variety of parent rocks--from contact zones around igneous intrusions, from fissure veins of various origins, from calcareous and clayey sediments, and from slates and schists. The manganese and manganiferous iron ores of the Cuyuna district of Minnesota, the largest source of low-grade ores in this country, were formed by the action of weathering processes on sedimentary beds of manganese and iron carbonates constituting "iron formations." The process is the same as the concentration of Lake Superior iron ores described elsewhere.
Manganese, like iron, is less soluble than most of the rock constituents, and tends to remain in the outcrop under weathering conditions. To some extent also it is dissolved and reprecipitated, and is thus gathered into concretions and irregular nodular deposits in the residual clays. In some cases it is closely associated with iron minerals; in others, due to its slightly greater solubility, it has been separated from the iron and segregated into relatively pure masses. With manganese, as with iron, katamorphic processes are responsible for the concentration of most of the ores. The ores are in general surface products, and rarely extend to depths of over a hundred feet.
The principal use of chrome ores is in the making of the alloy ferrochrome (60 to 70 per cent chromium), used for the manufacture of chrome, chrome-nickel, and other steels. These steels have great toughness and hardness, and are used for armor-plate, projectiles, high-speed cutting tools, automobile frames, safe-deposit vaults, and other purposes. Chrome ore is used also both in the crude form and in the form of bricks for refractory linings in furnaces, chiefly open-hearth steel furnaces; and as the raw material for bichromates and other chemicals, which are used in paints and in tanning of leather. In the United States in normal times about 35 per cent of the total chromite consumed is used in the manufacture of ferrochrome, and about 35 per cent for bichromate manufacture, leaving 30 per cent for refractory and other purposes.
